Airtel Launches ‘Airtel Zero’: A Win-Win Platform for Customers and Marketers

• Customers benefit: Customers enjoy free data access to a variety of mobile apps signed up with ‘Airtel Zero’

• Compelling marketing tool for marketers: App providers pay for customers’ data charges, thus giving customers toll-free access to their mobile application

• For startups to enterprises: An open marketing platform that empowers companies ranging from small businesses to large conglomerates with an equal opportunity to reach out to customers in India

• Spurs national agendas: Contributes to Government’s focus on Digital Inclusion and ‘Make in India’

Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, today announced the launch of ‘Airtel Zero’ – an open marketing platform that will allow customers to access mobile applications at zero data charges. Akin to the established concept of toll-free voice calling, ‘Airtel Zero’ will allow everyone from big marketers to small-time application developers to make parts or their entire mobile app free for customers – thus reviving interest of dormant customers, attracting new potential users and increasing retention. The platform will be a big win for customers as it will allow them to access their favourite mobile applications at no data charges, and also encourage them to try out new applications.

“We are excited to launch ‘Airtel Zero’, which is an open and non-discriminatory marketing platform for all developers in India – irrespective of the size of their business. We believe that this platform is consistent with India’s Digital Inclusion agenda and also contributes to the government’s ‘Make in India’ vision by providing a platform to millions of small businesses to reach out to the end consumer.”, said Srini Gopalan, Director – Consumer Business, Bharti Airtel (India).

Specifically, ‘Airtel Zero’ can work as a highly efficient marketing mechanism for small developers or startup shops that face budget constraints towards driving promotions and app downloads. “The results of our pilot program indicate that ‘Airtel Zero’ can deliver the same results as traditional digital marketing channels at 1/3^rd the cost – thus underscoring the immense value it can deliver for developers across. Following an extremely successful pilot phase, we are seeing a lot of interest from businesses across the board (including several small startup firms), and expect a large number of applications to sign on. We invite all application developers to register their interest in ‘Airtel Zero’ and see the compelling reach it can deliver to Airtel’s 200 million plus customers across India” added Gopalan.

To know more or register their interest for ‘Airtel Zero’, app developers can write to zero@airtel.com for details.

About Bharti Airtel:

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 4 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 319 million customers across its operations at the end of February 2015. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com